COTW: Wildfires Connected to Warming

Close readers of PNG know that the Chart of the Week feature includes interesting info-graphics. This info-graphic is from the Union of Concerned Scientists concerning the increase in wildfires in the western United States and the connection to climate change. Temperatures in the west are expect to climb as much as 6.5 degrees by mid-century. That condition will dry out forests and grasslands earlier and longer than previously experienced:

A 2009 report on wildfire costs by the Western Forest Leadership Coalition says that the 2007 fire year, the most recent for which complete data is available, cost $547 million in direct suppression costs. Indirect costs of fires such as clean up and economic impacts are 34% of direct costs. Climate change a myth? Don't bet your house on it.